Meet, Marry, Murder - Season 1, Episode 9 - Higgs - Full Episode | Forensic Files

reporters gather in reno to hear the fate of a high-profile local politician her worried husband tells them she's
gravely ill there was a television report on kathy augustine being in the hospital
chaz higgs said she'd had a heart attack kathy augustine the state controller the
woman who manages nevada's money is in a coma something's wrong with my wife she's not breathing she's not breathing
at all not breathing at all friends find it hard to believe that a woman so full of life and vigor could
have been struck down so suddenly by illness it was jarring to think of her going down like that they couldn't
really find any reason why kathy 50 years old never drank didn't smoke and worked out regularly
would have had a heart attack as kathy augustine fights for her life medical staff begin to wonder if she's
been the victim of foul play there was an undercurrent of suspicion surrounding kathy augustine's death
nothing was found in the sense of a cause of death kathy was married to chas higgs a nurse
a man who knew how to kill someone and leave little or no trace had state controller kathy augustine
been killed by her husband [Music] kathy augustine had husband charles to thank for bringing nurse chaz higgs into
her life chas and kathy's eyes met over charles augustine's death bed charles augustine was kathy's third
husband they've been married for 17 years but by 2003 the relationship was in serious trouble charles and kathy
augustine were estranged and heading toward divorce when he fell ill friends suspected that cathy's soaring
political ambitions had begun to take their toll on the marriage kathy had been drawn to politics since
she was in her teens long before she met charles augustine chuck augustine's wife kathy was born
cathy alfano in california when she was growing up her passion had always been politics and she was growing up in the
60s and 70s at a time when women were leaving the house attaining more they were more involved in politics and they
were out in the social sphere she was very highly educated she had a bachelor's degree she had a master's
degree and she had served an internship in washington dc around the time that she was in college
but before kathy could pursue a career in public service love marriage and children got in the way she got married
twice divorced twice had a young daughter and went to work for an airline and she
put her political ambitions aside for about 12 years she began working for an airline
sometimes as a flight attendant traveling around the world and around the country and then later and in
scheduling kathy would often tell friends how she never seemed to fall for the right men
but then she met chuck and her luck seemed to change charles augustine was 15 years her senior he was
a strong looking man he'd been a football player earlier in life he was also a vietnam vet and a devout catholic
they fell in love and got married and moved to the las vegas area charles adopted cathy's daughter dallas
and she in turn hit it off with charles sons larry and greg the family moved into a large luxurious
home in downtown las vegas but kathy wasn't content to stay at home playing happy families her passion for
politics rekindled she joined the republican party and launched her first campaign kathy augustine was very well
known in the state of nevada she was known as a hard charging very strong very dynamic
state politician she reveled in politics she loved the rough and tumble of politics
kathy took on the old boy's network of nevada politics with huge success she campaigned to become a member of the
state assembly she won she served a term then ran for state senate again her charisma and her ruthlessness helped her
crush the opposition she had run for and won election to the office of state controller of nevada she was actually
the first female state controller in in nevada's history she was the state's bill collector more or less you can't be
a shrinking violet and have that job and be any good at it and kathy augustine was very good at her job as state
controller kathy became a champion for republican women she joined all 18 of the state's
republican women's clubs and would drive miles to attend their functions dressed
in her trademark bright blazers and polished broaches but kathy's husband chuck resented
politics and resented his wife's soaring ambition a quiet conservative man he wanted to be at home
and he wanted his wife at home with him local journalist victoria campbell knew kathy as a woman who intended to succeed
no matter the cost i interviewed kathy augustine on numerous occasions she struck me as
tenacious very tough she was a very tough woman she just had her eyes on what she wanted
she was ambitious the pressure that that put on her relationship was starting to show and
by 1998 they were separated charles and kathy augustine were estranged and heading toward divorce
when he fell ill he suffered a minor stroke at their home in las vegas was taken to the hospital
then suffered a major stroke in the hospital it was 2003 and at the time chuck and his wife still jointly owned
their vegas home but charles had been living there alone cathy was living over 400 miles away in reno closer to her
work at the state capital she was buying herself a smaller home they planned to divorce
charles's illness put the plan on hold for the next six weeks kathy traveled back and forth to be at her husband's
bedside while he was being treated and was seriously ill one of his nurses was chas higgs
the critical care nurse chas higgs saw dollar signs she was an easy route to success she was
she was she had glamour she had status potentially he he thought that she was an easy route to the fairytale ending
that he believes uh is his destiny william charles hicks was also someone with a complicated relationship history
not a lot is known about chaz higgs's early life but between 1984 and 2002 he had three failed marriages he changed
state and job quite a lot and drifted chas and his twin brother mike were raised in north carolina by their father
who was in the marines forensic psychologist donna youngs my sense is that he came out of quite a
hard background a background where he didn't learn uh how to care about other people because it was a tough background
where other people weren't particularly caring about him it fits with the idea of an upbringing led by a military man
chaz followed his father into the armed forces he joined the navy and spent 16 years as a medical courseman looking
after sailors in naval clinics and at sea chaz was a wanderer moving from state to state leaving three failed
marriages numerous accusations of infidelity and a string of bankruptcies in his wake
we've got somebody who has an inability to self-regulate somebody who's who's always looking for excitement somebody
who who's who's immature and and somebody who um is very emotionally fluent is very is very warm
and charming and open put all those things together and you get somebody who is going to move from woman to woman
very readily and is going to appeal to a lot of women as well so it's easy for him to do that
but as higgs hit his late 30s he began to show signs of settling down by 2002 after the breakdown of his last
marriage jazz was living in nevada he had seemed to be a bit more stable he took a number of medical
qualifications and in 2002 received a state nursing license he got a job as a critical care nurse at the sunrise
medical center in las vegas he was living in a recreational vehicle he was living in an rv but he seemed to
be moving towards an actual career by now had chas higgs finally found his calling
he seemed to thrive in a hospital environment but not perhaps because he was a natural-born caregiver he would
have been comfortable going into nursing of holding other people's lives in his hands
because not because he cared so much but because actually other people's lives were so unimportant to him certainly
much less important than chas higgs's life in fact just a few years later his nursing colleagues would discover just
how disposable our human life was to chas higgs anytime he was busy and they'd one of them would say and all of them
testified to this and there were several one of them would say there's anything i
can help you with and he said yeah get rid of my wife [Music] the step change in the relationship
between critical care nurse chas higgs and state finance controller kathy augustine came when kathy watched her
husband of 17 years chuck take his last breath after six weeks he unfortunately passed
away but kathy's relationship to the intensive care team at the hospital didn't end there chas would later say
that they had chemistry they had instant chemistry and when they met in the hospital it was just
it was one of those things it seemed that kathy found chaz as captivating as he found her and a few
days after her husband's death she found the perfect excuse to see his nurse once
again kathy wrote thank you notes to all of the staff but she forgot to write one
to chaz in order to make up for that she decided to invite him out for coffee and that
was when their romance began chas took no time to accept the offer he'd been around this kind of
relationship roundabout before his romance romances mirror his his whole his whole approach to life it it's
one passionate encounter followed by another for kathy who was perhaps used to more intellectual reserved men who
was part of a calculating political world chaz actually would have been a breath
of fresh air in his warmth his openness pretty soon marriage was suggested i would venture
to say that kathy augustine probably hoped for what most people hope for a meaningful happy relationship
and this being her fourth marriage it was not something that she had been able to
have before she told her family he's an angel to me he swept me off my feet kathy's close friends and family were
skeptical to them they hardly seemed like a match made in heaven i think there were
probably some questions and you know people kind of looking askance at that relationship and wondering what she
saw in him and what he saw in in her they were both very dynamic attractive people but
whether they belong together i think i think there were a lot of questions asked about that the relationship
between chaz and kathy was not something that their friends could have predicted
she was eight years his senior and they didn't really seem to have a ton in common
he was a nurse she was a politician he hated politics um i think it just shocked people and and
he clearly had no interest in her career which was very very important to her but kathy seemed happy so her friends
swallowed their fears and wished the new couple well at the start of their relationship
things seemed to be going very well kathy gushed her friends that she'd never been happier
straight out of the gate it appeared that she was happy chas was athletic had always been interested in keeping up his
appearance and looking good um over the course of their relationship however he got kathy into shape he got her
interested in working out and they seem to be ticking along fairly well chaz enjoyed something he'd never known
before a luxurious lifestyle as a nurse he was never going to be rich by marrying kathy his life had become
comfortable overnight he had always been terrible with money and friends suspected that part of kathy's appeal in
the first place was that she was fairly wealthy she had received the payout from chuck's
life insurance which amounted to about a million dollars cathy's status as a formidable
political figure almost a local celebrity may also have been very attractive to chas
but the reality of being married to a hard-working highly ambitious woman was perhaps not as glamorous as chas
expected he was soon out of his depth and growing more resentful by the day he wanted her to quit politics when she
didn't quit politics it aggravated him in 2004 what some described as cathy's ruthless style of politics came home to
roost when she was accused of misconduct in office in september of that year kathy was
impeached for a campaign ethics violation and was forced to pay a fine of fifteen thousand dollars
that seemed to derail her political career somewhat and she had to work to recover her good name
kathy became the first nevada state constitutional officer to be impeached by the assembly she was found guilty and
censored but she kept her job the episode damaged her reputation and her wallet it took her 14 months to pay off
the record fifteen thousand dollar fine and she was forced to refinance her grand las vegas home
[Music] the marriage wasn't turning out to be quite the dream that chaz higgs had
envisaged money was tighter his wife was no longer the respected celebrity that he had wed
just two years before she was busier than ever rebuilding her damaged career not what chas higgs wanted
he was frustrated the stress of that situation may have caused more problems in their relationship by
autumn of 2005 chaz was really bad mouthing kathy quite a lot to colleagues at work he wanted her to
lose weight he called her a fat [ __ ] and that sort of thing clearly they were not getting along
they just didn't mesh he didn't like the scene she was in she wanted him to to like it and to go
with her to these events and things and he just didn't want any part of that chas always vain was now obsessive about
his appearance kathy's friends had often joked about how much chas fussed over his perfect hair now it seemed that
looking good was the only thing that mattered to him chaz had gotten into bodybuilding and was spending most of
his nights at the gym he had also gotten into steroids and was stockpiling medicine at home these peter pan figures
emotional peter pan figures are also incredibly immature and we see evidence of that in the unrealistic approach that
they take to life they're they're forever getting into problems with their money becoming bankrupt they're forever
taking on some new project with with a ridiculous intense ardency for for for a while
by early summer 2006 chas higgs had a new project he had one clear goal to get out of his marriage and he made
no secret of this to his fellow nurses anytime he was busy and they one of them would say and all of them
testified to this and there were several one of them would say did anything i can
help you with and he said yeah get rid of my wife he was saying terrible things about his wife to
his co-workers if i didn't have a daughter in las vegas i would kill my wife and throw her down
a mine shaft he started a flirtatious relationship with a colleague called linda ramirez
their email back and forth for months he suggested she booked a hotel room so they could meet and do dirty things
[Applause] three years after they got married chas was cautioned by superiors for
using his email his work email to send flirtatious messages to a colleague he had joined a website called passion.com
and was sending emails to other women chief deputy district attorney tom bob would later discover how disturbing some
of these emails could be we had witnesses as far as he was flirting with one of the people that worked at the
hospital he would you know say he sent her an email said i'm gonna make kathy he said that [ __ ]
kathy's life miserable another message read i hate this woman and i'll make her break
higgs loved to vent blurting out his darkest thoughts and feelings again and again
he was soon summoned before his boss to explain why he'd been misusing his hospital email account
he uh said he was reaching out to these other women because he was sad he was angry he was venting he confided to his
supervisor tina that things with kathy were problematic he described her as abusive and controlling
and tina started to get concerned that chaz might be the victim of abuse so she offered him a place to stay if he needed
it somehow word of this got back to kathy convinced that this other woman was making a move on her husband the
powerful politician lost her composure kathy somehow found out and began harassing tina at her place of work
cathy wrote threatening letters to tina and tina eventually took the matter to the hospital board and after that
kathy's harassment seemed to stop to have friends and family it seemed that kathy's relationship with chaz
higgs had driven the once dignified intimidating politician to new lows at times she seemed scared of him while
chaz was making it seem to tina that he was being abused the evidence seems to suggest that maybe something else was
going on for example kathy called her brother one day from the car crying sobbing and saying he's going to
kill us both because chaz was driving erratically crazy chas and kathy's marriage was in a mess
chaz could have chosen divorce he could have accepted another failed relationship and returned to square one
but he had a better plan one he was sure he could get away with higgs is on the telephone 911 my wife
is not breathing something's wrong with my wife she's not breathing she's not breathing at all not breathing at all
you can help at 6 45 a.m on saturday the 8th of july 2006 chas higgs made an emergency call from
the house that he and his wife kathy augustine shared in reno northwest nevada something's wrong with my wife higgs is
on the telephone 911 my wife is not breathing i need help he told the operator that he had found
his wife in her bed and she wasn't responding she didn't seem to be breathing the 911 dispatcher would later
tell a court that he'd never heard a caller so calm in a lengthy conversation chas gave
detailed directions to the home he was real kind of nonchalant about the whole thing
everybody commented about his his demeanor his tone of voice that sort of thing something is wrong with my wife he said
in a calm monotone she's not moving i'm a critical care nurse i've already started cpr on the 911 call he didn't
seem to be too affected by the fact that his wife wasn't breathing or anything like that something's wrong with my wife
she's not breathing hicks said he didn't think cathy had any medical issues but in that 9-1-1 call
and later when speaking to reporters he was quick to point out how much stress kathy had been under in recent months
it's not trauma or anything said she's been really stressed i don't know over the last six months or so hey i'm gonna
do some more cpr okay when the ambulance folks arrived she was still on the bed and
i i think they found a faint heartbeat chas told paramedics that he had attempted resuscitation but when they
arrived they found her still in the bed this was suspicious because as a trained
medical professional he should know that in order to resuscitate someone they have to be on a hard surface not a soft
bed to emergency responders the situation seemed odd even a little disturbing but
in that moment their main concern was saving kathy's life they did resuscitate her enough to get a
heartbeat blood pressure that sort of thing going and then they put her in the ambulance and took her to the
renowned mid south in the ambulance chaz sat up front alongside the driver who couldn't help
but notice his cool demeanor even as they sped along sirens blaring on the way to the hospital he was even reading
a newspaper if the emt had suspicions about kathy's condition and higgs behavior nurses at
the local hospital were even more skeptical how had this fit feisty politician ended up so seriously ill
some very alert nurses thought this just didn't look right she's not you know 50 years old no history of
anything doesn't look like heart attack to me or at least the normal heart attack
protocol she was a very vivacious apparently healthy 50 year old woman and that's not
that's not normal for her to just come in in a comatose state for her heart to stop
and she stops breathing and paramedics have to revive her later the same day chaz made another
move that was seen as distinctly odd he stood before assembled reporters to update them about his wife's condition
her family was in grief they lined up behind him during his news conference and they looked grim and they were
wearing sunglasses they were obviously distraught and they were losing someone very special to them chas appeared to be
very cool very calm very collected while he recounted what he had done to save his wife higgs told the press that kathy
had suffered from heartburn and stomach pains in the day before and that he believed that it was a cardiac arrest as
a result of campaign stress he said she'd had a heart attack i don't know where he got that
information or what what made him say that was kathy suffering under extreme stress
she was embroiled in a tough race to become the nevada state treasurer with the primary election in just a month's
time but for kathy's family and friends the stress theory didn't drink true they knew her as a person who thrived on
stress and something like that wasn't enough to do it you know at first the uh the scuttlebutt was that it may have
been a heart problem and of course that's not always obvious and and people get sick and and die every day from
heart problems kathy's doctors were baffled they could find nothing to explain her condition
doctors meanwhile couldn't find any evidence of heart disease and they couldn't really find any reason why
kathy 50 years old never drank didn't smoke and worked out regularly would have had a heart attack if there
had been a heart attack except for the i guess there there are exceptions to every rule but if there
had been a heart attack there there would have been evidence in the heart muscle
or in the arteries uh around the heart that sort of thing and there was none of that
kathy's extended family flew in to be by her bedside but as her condition deteriorated her estranged husband chas
was taking care of business the news just became progressively worse she was in a coma she was
had irreversible brain damage knowing this chas higgs moved fast to make sure he'd benefit from kathy's
death he had gone on i believe july the 10th to the retirement system office in carson
city to sign up for the for the the retirement that kathy had available to her kathy was in a coma for three
days during that time chaz made sure that her 1 100 a month state pension was signed over to him it would be his 1100
a month for the rest of his life now nobody thought that was extremely large amount of money but i'm thinking i could
live you know pretty pretty well with eleven hundred dollars a month more than i was working for
when higgs's colleagues at the hospital saw him they were struck by his demeanor
he didn't seem like a man whose wife was battling for survival the day after she was admitted he went
to go pick up a paycheck from a colleague and even brought that colleague a box of donuts as a thank you
he was checking on her pension he was bringing donuts to the nurses he was not always as nurses would later
testify behaving as a husband who was deeply concerned about his wife who was lying there in a comatose state
[Music] friends family workmates everyone who came across chas during these difficult
days were confused by his calmness his joviality after three days it became clear she
wasn't going to regain consciousness on july 11 2006 kathy's family made the decision to take
her off of life support and she died when news came that kathy augustine had died in the hospital that life support
had been terminated three days in i think the public felt terrible for her and for her family we
had lost someone who held a very high office in this state who had blazed a trail for female politicians for all
politicians and she was gone [Music] with a star of nevada politics dead at the age of 50 it was time for detectives
to start asking some serious questions to put it all together that was the challenge how do you how do you go from
a healthy 50 year old female to a dead 50 year old female the investigation would begin by
questioning those closest to kathy but as her family prepared to bury her knowing he was a suspect in her death
her husband did something quite shocking on july 14th chaz higgs attempted suicide
he was found by kathy's daughter dallas having slit his wrists and was briefly hospitalized he missed kathy's funeral
he slits the wrists but not very well and lays down in the bathtub in the house that he and kathy had in las vegas
uh wrote a big long note blaming other people in this world talking to people talking to his
daughter talking to kathy's brother [Music] signs it sincerely chaz higgs it says i'm going to see my wife
did chaz higgs really intend to kill himself and if he did what was he feeling grief remorse or something else
the suicide attempt following the murder is one of the most psychologically revealing of all factors here
it the fact that even this has to become about chaz uh is terribly revealing and i don't think for a minute that he
wasn't suffering the pain but the fact that it was the pain produced by him himself
is again just a classic symptom of the immaturity of the the lack of self-regulation of
self-analysis of self-awareness of of these type of peter pan psychological characters
meanwhile an autopsy on kathy augustine failed to establish a cause of death doctors and police were mystified
nothing was found in the sense of a cause of death found that her heart was in good shape
that her lungs were in good shape there was no evidence of a brain bleed or anything
like that there was something though the postmortem picked up a tiny injury to kathy's body that no one could explain
there was a a puncture wound on her hip uh that had turned it turned black and blue a little bit
uh as if whoever did it was in a rush or didn't know quite you know how to get it done without
hurting somebody neither the hospital nor the paramedics had administered a drug to kathy via an injection in her
hip when the hospital toxicologist examined samples of kathy's tissues and blood
after her death the only traces that were found were of drugs legitimately given to kathy by the doctors nurses and
paramedics who've been caring for her the blood and tissue samples came up with nothing when the autopsy was
finished and there was no apparent cause of death that resulted from that those tests i
think all of us knew something was up so it was just i have no case there's nothing to
prosecute she just died if chance had done something to cause kathy's death it seemed he might get
away with it the wounds on his wrists were healing chas had his job back and kathy's
pension too he was ready to get on with his life i didn't have enough information
to question the death and i didn't have enough information to say oh she just died
charles higgs may have thought he was sitting pretty but unbeknownst to him the local sheriff's department was far
from done with the mysterious death of kathy augustine and neither were his nursing colleagues
these very alert nurses took blood samples and urine samples and put them in a refrigerator
under an assumed name [Music] critical can nurse chas higgs appeared to have got over the death of kathy
augustine he seemed to write it off as an unfortunate tragedy not everybody was quite so willing to
move on there was an undercurrent of suspicion surrounding kathy augustine's death
some of the police officers implied that there was an investigation going on behind the scenes that
really was pointing away from a natural medical problem or cause of death in fact as cathy had lain in a hospital
bed fighting for survival two very important things happened the first was that deeply suspicious
nurses trusted their gut instincts when kathy was rushed into hospital they knew
that something about her condition didn't make sense she she or they the two of them decided to
take the body fluids from kathy right upon her entry in the into that hospital these very alert nurses took blood
samples and urine samples and put them in a refrigerator under an assumed name this doesn't look
right we're taking the fluids thank you the second thing that happened a day or two later was that higgs's colleague kim
raimi contacted the police she reported a troubling conversation that she'd had with higgs on july the 7th
the day before his wife was taken ill chas confided in a co-worker that he was considering divorce
later that same day with the same co-worker kim raimi he happened to mention a news story in which a husband
had killed his wife chaz higgs said he did it all wrong if i'm going to kill someone i'm just
going to hit him with a shot of sucks or succino choline and he made the injection kind of movement with his hand
and she she said that scared her a good deal said the hair on her arms stood up he said that it would have been
much better if the husband had used zucchino choline because that particular drug a paralytic
that's very frequently found on crash carts in intensive care units and emergency rooms isn't traceable after
death the drug is quick acting as far as paralyzes quickly it's also quick acting as far as it
moves out of the system quickly and it was because of kim raymie that you know the case really took off and
they knew what to test for and they knew what to look for because of a comment that he had made
if this really was what chaz higgs had used to kill his wife it was a remarkably cruel weapon of choice
sectional choline is used by anesthesiologists to paralyze the the throat muscles the lungs
so that they can intubate a person uh without causing too much harm and without much fight back it's a general
paralytic but when too much is given it can be fatal and even more horrifically the person
is often aware of what's happening and it takes about six to ten minutes to die they can feel it the entire time i think
what struck me most about this case was how cold and how calculated this death was
imagine giving someone a drug that stops them from breathing and stops them from crying out or
calling for help or moving a drug that's going to make someone suffocate to death in front of you for six or
eight minutes they know they're going to die and there's nothing they can do about it it's an agonizing death it's
part and parcel of somebody this self-centered that the drug he chose was one that
caused a lot of suffering to the victim he just wouldn't have thought that through properly
it now seems certain that chas higgs had chosen to inject caffeine augustine with
succinylcholine because the drug wouldn't be detected postmortem would the actions of the nurses who had
taken samples from kathy while she was still alive now help bring chaz higgs to justice
after kim rainey's phone call to detectives investigators knew what to test for those nurses had not gone in and gotten
those fluids it would have been a whole lot harder if not impossible to make a case against
chas higgs we sent the bodies the tissue samples and the fluids to the fbi lab in quantico where they
began testing and this was in july a waiting game began chas higgs had told fellow nurses that he wanted his wife
dead he had boasted about knowing the best way to kill someone yet if the toxicology report had come
back clean you're waiting two months two and a half months to get evidence that there even was a crime we
didn't know what was happening behind the scenes as far as you know body fluids and tissue samples
being sent to the fbi laboratory in virginia we didn't get the results back till september 26th i think
finally is the hot nevada summer due to a close a breakthrough the samples sent to the fbi had contained traces of the
anaesthetic drug suctional colin police put out a warrant for chas's arrest and on september 29 2006 he was
found and arrested in hampton virginia there was enough to arrest him enough for a warrant to search his belongings
and it was at this point that detectives were able to seize the evidence that would prove beyond a doubt that chaz
higgs had poisoned his wife when they combed through his car they couldn't believe their luck
at the time of his arrest he was carrying a backpack that contained a nursing manual there was a bookmark on
the page about administering sequin choline there was a packet of three by five cards for lack
of a better description and the very top one was a card that dealt with sectional choline
administration use that sort of thing higgs had boasted about committing the perfect murder so how had he come to
leave such an incriminating trail of evidence people like this do often get caught by the carelessness the uh which
is typical of such egocentric people um they're so unconcerned with other people
that the the flip side is that they're very unaware of the clues that they're leaving
the prosecution's case was all but water tight yet in court higgs insisted he was
innocent of kathy augustine's murder he just was saying what he needed to say and we led him because i wasn't about to
stop him from saying anything because i wanted to talk to him he said i love my wife
i wouldn't do that well what were you doing with ramirez telling her you wanted to drive that
[ __ ] crazy and it was working and it was your goal to be rid of her what i wanted to do
or what the purpose of my cross-examination was was to point out to everybody within
hearing distance that what he said was complete and utter junk out on bail during the trial chas higgs
ends his first day on the stand heads back to where he is staying with former hospital colleagues
and repeats a dramatic action one that he'd carried out a few months earlier mr higgs is in the hospital
because he had done his second suicide attempt as successful as the first one where he cuts himself and lays down the
bathroom floor in a house where he knows people are going to be around and check and they
find him and get him to the hospital before anything bad happens his second suicide attempt leaves him
far from close to death in fact he is returned to court the next day we talked to the gun and said well we'll
just cancel the day and let the jury know we'll call them as soon as he's available to testify
and oh by the way judge i want you to revoke his bail because we can't have him out on the
street or he's going to try to kill himself that's just not good we don't want him dead
we want him on trial of course when i ask that his bill be revoked for that reason his attorney
said i was a barbarian and or that was barbaric the judge did not feel the request
barbaric higgs was kept in jail and julie returned to the stand where he faced an old-school attorney move from
tom barb who was trying to show the jury how little damage higgs had done to himself with his suicide attempt
when he first took the stand i walk up to him with a blank sheet of paper and a pen
and tell him to draw me a diagram of your house just you know whatever it is just to
draw me a diagram of your house and so he starts drawing and the only purpose in that
was to let everybody know that his wrists weren't immobile or they weren't broken or anything like that he could
draw and he could write and and he did it chas higgs told lie after lie he just wasn't believable in anything he
said he was just a liar chaz higgs's trial continued through 2007 and on june 29 2007 he was convicted
he was sentenced to life in prison and he almost immediately went on suicide watch
higgs's defense team attempted an appeal but in may of 2009 the supreme court of
nevada upheld the conviction you got life with the possibility of parole after 20 years
to donna young's chas higgs personality was fatally flawed and it was his flaws and his mistakes that would eventually
sign his arrest warrant the absolute self-centeredness which which made it possible made it easy for
chas to discard of kathy um also in the end uh trips him up uh produces the carelessness in his behavior which trips
him up chas higgs was found guilty of the murder of kathy augustine he was sentenced to life in prison and will not
be eligible for parole until the year 2027 [Music] you

Nurse Chaz Higgs and politician Kathy Augustine had a whirlwind romance that ended when he used his medical knowledge for the wrong reasons.

Though wedded couples vow to stay together until death do they part, this new true crime series looks at what happens when a groom or bride causes their beloved's death.

Brief Summary

Kathy Augustine's mysterious death leads to her husband's arrest for murder after suspicious behavior and evidence of foul play emerge.

Key points

Kathy's Political Ambitions. Kathy Augustine's rise in politics is marked by ambition and success, but strains her marriage.
Chas Higgs's Dark Thoughts. Chas Higgs expresses disturbing thoughts about his wife to colleagues, hinting at deeper issues.
Kathy Augustine's Illness. Kathy Augustine, the state controller, is hospitalized and in a coma after a heart attack.
Chaz Higgs' Odd Behavior. Chaz Higgs displays unsettling calmness while his wife fights for her life.
Kathy's Mysterious Condition. Kathy Augustine, a healthy politician, suddenly falls into a coma with no clear cause of death.
The Shocking Suicide Attempt. Chaz Higgs attempts suicide shortly after his wife's death, raising further suspicions.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He swept me off my feet.

Kathy describes her feelings for Chas.

11:59WatchJun 8, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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